fiscal cliff, it was widely assumed by republicans that obama and democrats badly wanted to avoid it. that was the premise that any possible agreement hedged on. that was the common goal, or so we thought. of the past couple of weeks, it has become increasingly clear to many of us that we were simply wrong about that. incredibly, many top democrats including the president seemed part perfectly happy to go off the cliff. that is why the president has been more interested in campaign rallies and actually negotiating a deal. it explains why the president is now stubbornly insisting on raising tax rates when he himself said just last year that you could raise more revenue from capping deductions and closing loopholes. them or balance. it's about an ideological campaign that most americans thought would have ended on november 6, and that's also why the president sent secretary geithner up here last week with a proposal so completely ridiculous it wouldn't have passed the house, as i indicated earlier, if nancy pelosi were still speaker. it was more of a provocation than a proposal, to be